An Encyclopedia of the History of Technology part 88. This one of a kind encyclopedia presents the entire field of technology from rudimentary agricultural tools to communication satellites in this first of its kind reference source. Following an introduction that discusses basic tools, devices, and mechanisms, the chapters are grouped into five parts that provide detailed information on materials, power and engineering, transportation, communication and calculation, and technology and society, revealing how different technologies have together evolved to produce enormous changes in the course of history | PART FIVE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY application to domestic machines until the 1930s and factory machines tended for some years to be driven from overhead shafting. FASTENINGS Fastenings are an essential component for the majority of garments and one in which great advances have been made in recent years. Toggles of wood bone or antler were first used and engaged loops of leather thong. The toggle was later refined to form the button originally made from shell bone or wood. The button in fact was originally used more as an ornament than as a fastening the earliest known being found at Mohenjo-daro in the Indus valley. It is made of a curved shell and about 5000 years old. There was a gradual increase in the use of buttons throughout the Middle Ages particularly for decorative purposes in fact until the eighteenth century when production became mechanized in the factory with a consequent reduction in price bringing the product within the popular rather than the luxury range. Mother-ofpearl glass and precious and base metals were added to the range of materials used. Cloth buttons formed on a disc of brass with a shank added became common in the early twentieth century. The hook-and-eye fastening dates from Roman times when it was used for fastening soldiers leather breast armour. It came into use again on the continent of Europe in the sixteenth century the first British hooks and eyes coming from the firm of Newey s in 1791. The press stud stems from the invention by Louis Hannart in 1863 of an Improved clasp or fastener for gloves and other wearing apparel for umbrellas travelling bags. . From the late nineteenth century manufacture took place in Germany reaching a peak in the early years of the twentieth century. In 1885 patented a spring and stud fastener while patented a similar design in the USA the following year. Production of existing fasteners particularly the press stud was greatly threatened by the invention of the zip fastener .
